


Do Feelings Stay the Same?

by pseudolily



Category: Naruto
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-06
Updated: 2019-07-06
Packaged: 2020-06-23 11:25:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,290
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19700389
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pseudolily/pseuds/pseudolily
Summary: Sasuke comes back to Konoha Village after two years and found everything has changed.Most of the people he knew married and settled down. In the array of shifts, he gets nervous when he remembers Sakura and his feelings for him. He left her a forehead poke before disappearing for two years.Do feelings stay the same?





	Do Feelings Stay the Same?

**Author's Note:**

> May not follow accurate timeline from Naruto Gaiden.

**Do feelings stay the same?**

Sasuke touches his phantom arm again for the nth time today, indicating his nervousness as he nears the huge gates of the village. It was easy to see the changes in Konoha from afar despite the rehabilitation projects still being underway. Well, that's Hatake Kakashi for you. He was gone for two years for a mission Sasuke deemed as redemption. In such a short time including his recovery and tribunal meetings with the village's heads, he wasn't able to do much connecting with people before he set out to foreign lands. He missed Naruto's wedding. He only had one dinner with Kakashi. He blinked at Sai and Ino's flirty squabble one time. Nothing relevant. Well, except Sakura. That is, if one considers a forehead poke as a connection.

_How is she?_ Sasuke asks inside his head. He halts midway, just before his foot steps inside the village's territory. There's a sharp intake of breath, and he felt the anbu surround him. A moment of tension rises the same time he hovers his hand above his kunai, and then he notices one mask shaking, small chuckles beneath until it erupted into boisterous laughter. The hokage himself.

“That’s very funny, Kakashi,” Sasuke grimaced.

“My, why are your nerves so nervous today?” Kakashi jabbed at him with his puny joke to which Sasuke only replied to with a glare. “Welcome back to Konoha. Formalities first – brief us with your mission.”

The sun just set in the horizon with exaggerated bursts of oranges and pinks in the sky. Sasuke cannot believe he spent his whole day in that cramped room where he was badgered with questions, follow-ups, intelligent guesses, analysis and forecasts of future enemies, and finally, what he plans to do next. While his road to redemption is far from finished, the council granted him at least six months of reprieve – to reconnect with people, to place down his roots in what he still considers home, and to just breathe. There was an ache in his phantom arm again. Sasuke sighed, gave up on waiting for Kakashi to finish his works and sought to find ramen.

Naruto is also nowhere in sight as he has a mission outside the village. The village that is no longer a village. Kids have been carrying around rectangular pieces of device that almost mimics a battery or a bomb. A lot of restaurants have also been opening within the center, introducing foreign flavors in unfamiliar shapes, some of which Sasuke has already tried. But most of all, the place is unfamiliar. He is unfamiliar. He is a foreign man in what has been his home once. If angry faces made him squirm before, the indifference they offer him now made him nameless. Not that it matters. He is indifferent to what he has become anyway.

Then he sees a glimpse of pink strands of hair getting out of a dimsum place. He sees her back and the familiar pink get-up she usually wears. Her hair’s gotten longer and ends just above her waist. He also hears her laugh and suddenly, all the noises faded away. He can only hear her and the last words she said to him two years ago, “See you soon.”

“See you soon,” Sakura bids her friends goodbye as they capped off their dinner. She is the only female in the core team of the newly harmonized medical nin staff.

Only then does Sasuke’s little smile disappear. Two years, and he expects her to stay the same. He momentarily panics when Sakura turns around and catches him on sight with a wide-eyed gaze.

“Sasuke?” Sakura is in disbelief, it seems. “Sasuke! It really is you!” She takes a step forward to him, another, and another, and she almost runs up to his, unfortunately, uninviting arms. She stops at literally an arms-length away from him and smiles widely.

“Hi, Sakura,” Sasuke quips. He flings his nonexistent arm at her. “An enemy took it and left me armless a year ago.”

“You dummy. You could have sent for us.” Worry slashed across her face, and Sasuke feels a bit of relief. A sign that she still cares, but he remembers too soon that it is her job. “Have you had dinner yet?”

“I’m not really hungry.” In that inopportune moment, Sasuke’s stomach grumbles, loud enough for Sakura to hear and throw her head laughing. She grabbed his other arm and pulled him to a nearest ramen stall and ordered for him.

Not needing any prompt from him, Sakura indulges in a litany of life updates and rants about her life, Naruto, Kakashi, and the rest of her friends. Sasuke takes all the stories in with no complaints just as how he takes his first familiar meal with a familiar friend. Somehow, he belongs.

The stars are fully out in the night sky by the time they exited the ramen stall. Sasuke ate a total of five bowls. Couldn’t really blame him. Kakashi starved him the whole day. As Sasuke and Sakura walked towards the river, a few guys call after her and bid her good night, probably an indication of how well-known she is in the village.

“Famous, I see,” Sasuke remarks.

“Did you see how they side-eyed you? I saw that blush of admiration rising from their cheeks!” Sakura gushed. “You have quite a lot of fanboys despite you being an absentee.”

Sasuke bids for silence. Is this the right time? “I actually thought the village forgot me. Not my sins, I guess.”

“No, not your sins,” she agreed. This catches Sasuke off guard and shuts himself off. Is Sakura angry at him? Was their last meeting a ploy just to help him start off his redemption mission?

The pink-haired lady sits on a bench overlooking the river and looks up to the sky. “But I’m happy you came back. I just knew. No one told me. No letter, no ups from Kakashi or even Naruto. I was at a dead end, and I didn’t know whether to give up.”

Sasuke finds his throat dried up. “Sakura, I’m sorry.”

When her lips curved into a smile, Sasuke knew immediately she was faking it. Tears were starting to form on the sides of her eyes. “I never thought see you soon also meant me never getting to hear your end for those two years. Do you know how hard it was to keep faith with a forehead poke and a see you soon? You cannot just come back and pretend everything’s the same. Apart from your sins, everyone moved on Sasuke. Most of our friends had relationships – got married, settled down, had kids. Some pursued greater passions for more fulfilling lives. Me? I was stuck. I cannot just go outside the country and set up base for a year because god knows you may be back. I cannot entertain guys because I was hoping you will come back and still love me. I am still stuck with these feelings and every day they just get stronger to the extent that I thought I would lose my mind. It’s so crazy I’m still in love with you. Goddammit Sasuke, I wish you would say something.”

Sasuke gives a heavy sigh. He did not prepare for outbursts of feelings from her. He thought he was the one to stutter and lay declarations of love at her feet. He flashed her a smirk. “So, do you still love me?”

“Oh God, I hate you so much!” Sakura stomped around and turned her back on him, her tears falling on her cheeks. Her sight blinded for a second, she gasped when his one arm hugged her from behind.

“I love you, and I’m home.”


End file.
